Aftermath
by currierbell
Summary: Jacob took Renesmee away to Rio de Janeiro during the fight with the Volturi. He believes her parents were killed, but what happens when they come back - bringing a vengeful Volturi with them? BxE, RxJ
1. Chapter 1 Vanessa

Chapter 1

Vanessa

"Bye, Jake! Love you!"  
I climbed in the car, revved the engine, and pulled away, still smiling. My smile faded as I approached school. Even six hours away from Jake was too much. I was so grateful he had turned down college acceptances to stay and wait for me to finish high school. Besides, he'd have plenty of time to complete college later, when I was finished with high school for the first time. A life like I was told my mom and dad had had, moving on from place to place.

I sighed as I pulled into the school parking lot. I made my way through the hallways, being careful not to touch anyone. Was this the kind of life my mom would have had? Living high school over and over again, the monotony made bearable by the fact that she was with her soul mate? Jake and I had fled before they killed her. I was grateful I wasn't stuck with those memories for all of eternity. And of course my dad, who had probably graduated high school twenty times before he met the core of his existence. Five years ago, the Volturi, because of me, had killed my parents. I had millennia to convince myself it wasn't my fault. Still I knew it would never happen. I would forever know that were it not for me, my parents would be alive. But I wouldn't be. This was the price I had to pay for my life.

And then there was the thing about never fitting in anywhere. I was half-human, half-vampire, in love with a werewolf. Never truly belonging to a coven, a pack, or a family. What if I had children? One-fourth vampire, one-fourth human, one-half werewolf. I might not have the supercharged mind of a vampire, but I could do that math. They'd never be part of anything either. There weren't any vampires at my school, so I was the only member of the supernatural. If I touched you, you'd know what I was thinking. One flinch could give away the secret of our existence, and then I'd be condemned to the same fate as my parents. So I didn't really have friends. It was too risky. Jake was my life. That was it.

AP Spanish, AP Biology, AP Trigonometry, Lunch. My day dragged on. It all seemed pointless. I wished for the billionth time my parents were alive. I could have eaten (or rather, not eaten) lunch with Mom, Dad, and my aunts and uncles. They'd probably be in some of my classes. I could be their cousin, or something like that. Jake always referred to Alice as the better sister, but he had an aversion to blondes (Rosalie!). He'd liked Emmett and Jasper equally. It would have been so much more fun…

Of course, these kinds of thoughts crossed my mind daily. I ate lunch alone, sat in the back of the room for all my classes. Finally, the last bell rang. I dashed to my car (only normal speed) and sped home. As I opened the door, a smile spread across my face. It quickly turned to a look of confusion. Sitting at the dining room table were two people, but I knew instantly they weren't people. Their skin was chalk-white, their eyes liquid topaz. One was a boy, one was a girl. The boy had short mahogany hair, the girl had waist-length auburn hair. I knew immediately they were vampires.

"Renesmee," the girl crooned in a musical voice. "I'm Bella Cullen."


	2. Chapter 2 Renesmee

Chapter 2

Renesmee

I was nearly certain I was dreaming. Either that, or these were the ghosts of my parents. I didn't really believe in ghosts, but there had been a time when my mother hadn't believed in vampires, and about 120 years ago, neither had my father. But if I was dreaming, it was a good dream, and if they were ghosts, I might never get to see them again. "What happened to you?" I asked quickly. "I thought you were dead!"

My father's tawny eyes looked sad. "The Volturi didn't kill us all," he informed me. "Only Esme, Carlisle, and…Alice."

My head whirled. "What? No!" I felt certain this wasn't a dream anymore. Even on a subconscious level, I would never make myself experience Alice's death. Jake had told me stories about my funny, crazy aunt. I still had pictures from my mother's wedding. Heck, I still had _nightmares _about my mother's wedding. But no nightmare could measure up to this. "Alice can't be dead!"

"She fought bravely," my mother lamented. "But they killed her, in the end. She tried to defend Huilen and Nahuel."

"Carlisle?" I squeaked. "Esme?"

"Neither would leave without the other," my dad said. I could see he was reliving the scene; he had a tortured expression. "So they were burned."

"But you two got away?" After all Jake had told me about my parents, I couldn't picture either of them leaving the other. Not even to save their own lives. _Especially _not to save their own lives.

"Well, we were incredibly lucky," my dad told me. "I'm not sure you remember what happened to you…"

I did. I could never forget. I'd held on to every memory I had of my parents. I planted them somewhere between a faulty human mind and a fail-safe vampire mind.

_I had been small, not that it mattered to Jake, but I was small enough that Jacob could carry me as though I was feather-light. I remembered the Volturi advancing on us. They looked like an assembly of gods, come for us on Judgment Day. Momma and Daddy had told me that it was important that I tell the truth. The leader of the group, the one with the powder-white hair and blood red eyes, had asked to meet me. I didn't want to meet him. He scared me. I wanted to stay by my Jacob. But Jacob released my clinging arms, put me down in front of the leader. I gave him my hand and showed him Daddy's shining skin and changing eyes. Then I showed him Momma from my very first memory of her, with chocolate brown eyes exactly like mine. I remembered the smell of the blood, seeping out on the floor. The leader hissed. I moved quickly away. His countenance turned complacent. "How interesting," he murmured. "You spoke the truth, Edward Cullen." He turned his dark-haired comrades. "As did the smaller one, with the other odd half-breeds." I growled. I didn't like being called odd, though I knew I was. Momma said I was special, unique. "As a species, these do not seem to pose a threat. But this one, this Renesmee, she seems to be special among a breed of specials. She strengthens the truce between these golden-eyes and the…shape-shifters. We cannot have that."_

_Grandpa Carlisle spoke calmly to their leader, though Momma and Daddy and my whole family seemed frightened. Momma held my hand and sensed my fear. "Don't be afraid, Renesmee," she cooed. It looked to me like she could have taken her own advice. _

"_Please, Aro, there is no threat," Grandpa Carlisle rationalized. "We would never dream of hurting you. You protect our kind. Why would we ever want to contest that?"_

_Aro gestured to our ensemble. "Yet you seem to have assembled quite an army."  
"As I said before, witnesses, just as you have brought."_

"_Maybe you have no plans to hurt us now," Aro conceded, "but what happens in a century or two? You would have everything at your hands. Think what your Bella could do, if she were properly trained. We must destroy this one, Carlisle, only this one. If you will give her up, we will let you go on home."_

"_Never," Jake breathed._

_Aro shrugged. "Have it your way, shape-shifters."_

_Momma and Daddy stepped in front of me. Momma squeezed Jacob's hand, as the rest of my family started to convene around us. Jacob phased easily and placed me on his back. I held his fur tightly, knowing it wouldn't be painful for him. Jacob ran, far away. Later that night, at the airport, he dried my tears._

"Yes," Edward remarked. "That's right, up till a point."

I started, looking to make sure I wasn't touching anyone. Then I remembered he could read minds. "What happened next?"

Bella closed her eyes, as if she were watching a movie in her head. "Aro spoke to our witnesses. He told them that they didn't need to stay, that this wasn't their fight. Most of them left. Benjamin stayed, but Zafrina deserted us. They lunged for me immediately, but I was stronger than them. I was still a newborn, you remember, and I managed to help take out Alec and Jane. Tanya killed Caius, but was killed by Marcus." Was it my imagination, or did a slight wry smile flicker across her face? "Edward got Demetri, just as he said he would. Jane nearly killed him after that, but I shielded him and killed her. Rosalie and Emmett got most of the talented guard. Alice tried to protect Huilen and Nahuel, as I said. But they killed her. I don't know how…she should have seen it coming, but they were just too fast. I wanted to kill them all." She bared her teeth, a frightening sight. My father rested one hand on her shoulder.

"What about Aro, Marcus, and Caius?" I asked, dredging the name up from my memory. "Were they killed?"

Bella shook her head. "If only they were. No, they're actually the reason we came here."

Jake, who had been remarkably silent this whole time, pulled me close to him. "They won't hurt her. I'll kill them all." He bared his wolf-like teeth.

"We want that too, Jacob," Edward agreed. "But unfortunately, they still are looking for her. The pack was killed, but new members have sprang up."

A random thought raced across my head. "How did they explain the mass murder?"

"A serial killer," Edward whispered. "Not far from the truth."

Jake's grip tightened on me. I touched his face gently, showing him that hurt. Although of course I talked at school, I still preferred my old habit of using my gift. "Sorry, Ness – Renesmee," he quickly corrected as my mother's eyes narrowed. "But they still want her."

"We tracked them," Edward told us. "They're coming here. Soon."

I thought of my mother, racing from James when she was still a fragile human. Intergenerational déjà vu. My father winced in pain, reading my thoughts. "Where can we go?"

"Back to Forks," Edward answered readily. "We need to protect the new pack. Jacob, you need to lead them."

Jake visibly shrank. He didn't take kindly to any responsibility. He'd told me about leading his own little pack – he and Seth and Leah. It created a lasting bond between him and Leah, but it was a painful road. Edward shook his head and chuckled quietly to himself.

"What?" I asked.

"You two ought to hear your thoughts," he responded. "You're thinking almost the exact same thing." I looked back at Jake. It wasn't surprising. "Yes, Jacob," he added as an afterthought.

"How long do we have before they'll be here?" I asked, expecting some sort of reasonable answer.

Bella appeared to do some lightning fast calculations. "One hour."


	3. Chapter 3 Nessie

Chapter 3

Nessie

Jake, quite understandably, panicked. "An hour?" he echoed. "They'll be here in an _hour_?"

"The Volturi has been tracking you and Renesmee for five years," Edward informed us. "We diminished their size greatly. They will not forget this. We also revealed them as what they are; despotic, power-hungry brutes. They rule the vampire world to gain power, not keep peace."

"What about Charlie?" My heart rate quickened at the thought of the Volturi unleashed on my fragilely human grandfather. Jake frowned and I realized I was still touching his face. I didn't move my hand. It was easier that way.

"Charlie is fine," Bella assured me. "We told him you had been kidnapped, and that we were going to find you. That was four years, nine months, twenty-one days, five hours, and sixteen minutes ago." It always was eerie how vampires could do complex calculations in their heads like lightning. It scared me.

Jake tightened his grip around my waist. "We're wasting time. We need to protect her."

"We couldn't agree more, Jacob," Edward said with false cheer in his voice. "We'll take her, if you want."

"Werewolves can outrun vampires," Jacob protested. "Let me take her."

"Can you still phase?" Edward asked worriedly.

Jacob laughed. "I spend most of my time as a wolf." With that, he turned right into an enormous, horse-size russet thing. He wasn't really a _wolf_, I realized. That was a bit of a misnomer. He was some sort of strange creature that looked like a cross between an elephant and a dog. A freak, just like me. No wonder he'd imprinted on me. I climbed on his back and held tightly to the cocoa brown fur. Within a nanosecond, Bella and Edward were out the door, and even my slightly superhuman eyes lost track of them in less than two seconds. Jacob galloped through the back woods, jostling me but I managed to stay on. I touched his face, wondering if I was pulling too tight. He shook his head. The time dragged on, trees and bushes and little woodland animals blurring into a soupy mix. I wondered vaguely how Jake knew a way through the woods that would lead to Forks. Then I remembered this was probably the route we'd come. I remembered our plane tickets to Rio de Janeiro had left from the Dallas airport.

Rio de Janeiro hadn't exactly worked. As my mother had feared, Jake had taken French for his elective – not at all helpful. But that was the least of our problems. The few people we talked to about the legends of other creatures like me viewed us as killers. They had all known someone who had given birth to a half-vampire, half-human. I could still remember Bella just minutes after I was born, covered in her own blood, her back contorted at an odd angle. I had thought I was a killer. So did the Rio de Janeiro inhabitants. Jacob had been (and still was) my sole support. We left when I was about twelve years old, mentally and physically.

Finally, Jacob entered the small town of Forks. It felt like I was stepping into one of my memories. There was my mother's high school, in the distance, and a little closer to the woods, my grandfather's house. I wanted to visit everybody. Maybe, now, I could. Jacob scratched with one paw in the dirt. B-I-L-L-Y, he spelled.

"Jake, you can phase in front of me. It's no big deal." Jake phased back. I tried not to look: however hard I tried to forget, I _was _only five years old. Technically. But mentally, I was about sixteen. So I snuck one glance. Then I looked away.

"I know," Jake answered. "I just want to see him."

Bella and Edward appeared, as if from thin air, beside us. "Jacob," Bella sighed. "You forgot clothes." She waved a bundle of clothes in the air. Jake took them, then went behind a tree. He came back out fully clothed.

"That is disgusting," Bella scorned. I disagreed, but I didn't want to fight.

"What? You prefer it the other way?" Jacob teased.

Bella rolled her amber eyes. "You know what I mean. She's five years old!"

"Technically," I interjected. "But I feel about sixteen."

"I think I agree with Jacob," Edward interrupted. "We might want to stop by Billy's house. I'm sure he'd be sympathetic."

"All right," Jacob exclaimed. "See ya!" he shouted, and then took off. The vampires trailed him, leaving me in their dust. I ran, trying to follow them. But of course I remembered Billy's house. I didn't need them to lead me. Jake stopped just short of knocking the door down, and rang the bell. Billy answered the door. I stared. Just five years ago, I'd fit comfortably in Billy's arms, being rocked to sleep or bottle-fed. Now I towered over him. Had his hair always been so silvery? Had his arms always seemed so inadequate to push the wheelchair? How had he fared without Jacob?

"Jacob?" Billy breathed. "And Bella, and Edward! And little Nessie!" Bella's eyes narrowed and she hissed. "You're not so little now. What brings you back here?"

Jacob put his arm around my waist protectively. "They're coming for her," he choked. "The Volturi."

Billy turned from welcoming parent to werewolf parent. "Why?"

"They've been tracking us for five years," Bella explained. Her ocher eyes looked like they were disconcerting to Billy. He shifted in his wheelchair. "Ever since the meeting with the Volturi, they've become convinced that Renesmee strengthens the bond between the pack and the coven. They want to kill her."

Billy sighed. "I figured as much. Now, though, it's like she's doing the opposite – no offense Nessie. Jasper won't speak to any of us but Charlie. He blames us for Alice's murder. Emmett's sympathetic to his cause, and Rosalie follows Emmett, of course. There have been fights. The treaty's void now. Jasper attacks almost every other week. He hasn't killed anyone…yet. But he's gotten pretty close. And of course we can't go to a doctor, now that Carlisle's dead."

"Billy," Jake whispered. "Who did we lose?"

Billy closed his eyes, reluctant to relive the fight. "Sam was one of the first ones killed. He was racing around, trying to protect everyone. Collin and Brady fought bravely, I'm told. It took Jane, Alec and Demetri to kill them. Quil died trying to save Embry. One of the vampires lunged for him, and Quil leapt in front of him. Claire was heartbroken."

"Who joined?" Jake continued. It was a day of gains and losses for both of us.

"Leah's leading the pack now," Billy explained. "No one's really crazy about it, but as long as they've got a leader. Seth, of course, is the Alpha's Second. Embry and some of the old ones are their top dogs. Randall, Ethan, Zeke. And then there are three new ones. One is Jason, Quil's cousin. He came down for a visit and phased. When they left, he snuck back on a train. One is Nathan, who's Sue Clearwater's little brother. He's nineteen. And…well…" Billy took a deep breath. "One is your sister."

Jake couldn't believe it. He stood there, gaping, with his mouth wide open. I knew girls could become werewolves. Just look at Leah Clearwater. But Jake's sister? After a long pause, Jacob asked, "Which one?" Like it mattered.

"Rachel." Billy wheeled into the house, and Edward, Bella, Jacob and I followed dumbly. "It was right after the wedding."

"Wedding?" Jacob echoed.

Billy fixed himself some peanut butter crackers, then offered Jake and I some. I shook my head. Human food was repulsive. Jake accepted five. "You remember, Paul imprinted on Rachel. Well, they got married… not soon after you left. It was good to have some cheer around this place. For a while it was just all gloom and doom. After the wedding, Rachel phased. It wasn't too big a shock for her. She knew about werewolves. She just never thought she would become one."

"Neither did I," Jake muttered.

Billy started getting out some chips and dip, and some sandwich ingredients. "Are you having company, Billy?" I asked him, since everyone but Jake and him had refused food. (Not that I doubted Jake could eat the entire refrigerator.)

"Not me," Billy answered. "You."

"Us?" I echoed.

"Planning the attack," Billy said nonchalantly. "It starts tonight."


	4. Chapter 4 Half Human

Chapter 4

Half-Human

We were at a party of sorts, with some of Jake's old friends. Paul and Rachel were there at the beginning, but since then, they had disappeared to one of the corners of the house. _I _thought they had the right idea, but Jake wanted to meet the new werewolves and catch up with his old pal Leah. I talked to my parents. "Did you go to Rio?" I asked them as we sat on Billy's couch.

"Yes," Bella answered in her musical voice. It sounded like wind chimes on a gusty day. "We couldn't find you for the longest time. We looked everywhere, but we couldn't even find the vampires. It turns out they'd fled from you, Renesmee."

I swallowed. "I knew they hated me, but I didn't think they'd leave."

"They caught up with Zafrina's coven in Africa," Edward recalled. "We tracked them there. Finally we got it out of them. They had been there. But they didn't know where you'd gone. Why Dallas?"

I shrugged. "They were the first tickets we could find," I informed. "Jake and I wanted desperately to get away. They _really _hated us."

My mother's amber eyes sparkled with rage. "It doesn't matter now," she lied. I could see she still wanted to kill them. I touched her face, letting her feel that it was okay. I'd gotten over that. People didn't understand me. They might understand my species. They might understand the Cullens. But they didn't understand me, because I was too different. I had two parents. That was unique for my species. I was imprinted, while most vampires could never stand to be around a werewolf for that long. My mother continued speaking. "They hadn't seen the Volturi, but that didn't mean we couldn't find them. They do stand out a bit. We followed them up to New York, but it turned out that was only the path Nahuel had taken. They didn't know you were with Jacob, we realized later, so they didn't know to look for a werewolf. They thought they'd killed them all."

"But they saw Jacob run away with me," I remembered, confused.

"No they didn't," Edward asserted with a sly smile. "Zafrina, remember? She covered for you both."

I would be eternally grateful to her. I touched Bella's face, showing her my gratitude. She smiled, and Edward went on with the story. "But we didn't know she covered for you at first. It was only later, when I was close enough to read their minds. Their memories omitted that whole section of the battle. So we went south. First to Florida, where we caught up with some of Renee's friends."

I kept my hand on Bella's face. How had she explained the glittering skin, the scarlet eyes to her mother?

"We didn't talk to Renee," Bella answered my unspoken question. "We talked to some of her friends, told them we were looking to catch up with some friends of ours. They hadn't seen them. So we went back, tracing our way across the country right along the coast. Then Edward smelled you two on one of the beaches."

Thank God for that one trip.

"We followed the scent and there you were."

This was so incredible. I'd thought they were dead for so long. Now they were both here, just as I had always imagined them…it was like a dream I didn't want to wake up from. Billy, however, rudely interrupted by beginning a speech. "Now, you all know why you're here," he announced. "The Volturi are in hot pursuit of Nessie here."

_That _was the fight? I had assumed the werewolves were attacking the Cullens. Stupid of me. Would Bella and Edward have simply sat here if that were the case?

No! This couldn't happen! This fight couldn't be my fault! What if someone died? What if Jacob – no. I couldn't finish that sentence. I would protect him. I'd offer myself us before I let them touch Jake. Billy, oblivious to my epiphany, barreled on. "We're going to defend her," he said, gathering the wolves around the table and unrolling a sheet. It looked like a game plan for a football team. If only it were that easy, that carefree. Jacob made a few suggestions, and pretty soon the whole thing was defaced with red Sharpie. Edward nodded as if he approved.

"Jacob is on the correct path," he asserted. "There's just one thing…" And pretty soon both my parents were poring over the plan. In the confusion, Jake gestured to me to come to him. When I did, he took my hand and led me outside. I thought I knew where we were going with this. Of course I was wrong.

"Nessie, I love you," Jake said. He told me that almost daily, but it still made my heart skip a beat or four every time. "I don't want to keep the truth from you. We're outnumbered on this fight. We've got some skill, but it might not be enough. Someone will be hurt or killed."

I stared. Tears came to my eyes. Who did he think that would be? Himself? Me? I preferred the latter.

Jacob reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a ring. I gasped. Finally, I knew how my mother felt the night my father proposed to her. The traditional words didn't need to be spoken. "To give me something to fight for," he explained. I calmly accepted the ring. My heart was pounding out of my chest. My knees were vibrating underneath me. I sincerely thought I might collapse. To steady myself, I kissed Jacob. Bad idea. Well, actually a very good idea, but not the best course to slowing down my heart and allowing rational thinking. I felt like a vampire the moment before the transformation. My heart was flying out of my chest. My blood was boiling. Minutes passed, though I didn't keep track. I was too exuberant.

Finally, Jake broke away. "Billy will wonder where I am," he reasoned. At least one of us was thinking.

"I love you, Jacob," I said. When I entered back, Bella and Edward were looking at me. I'm sure they had an idea where I'd been. Billy and the werewolves seemed to have evolved a battle plan that they were reasonably confident about. "What now?" I asked no one in particular.

"Now," Billy responded, "we wait."


	5. Chapter 5 Half Vampire

Chapter 5

Half-Vampire

The Volturi came for us. They wanted me to die. And they're pretty used to getting what they want.

We waited four days. The werewolves trained with Edward and Bella, who knew the Volturi well and tried to give them lifelike training. I thought they did well, but I didn't know much. Mostly, I stood and watched. I was too much of a fragile human to risk my life saving myself. Billy and Sue and Charlie would protect me. Charlie knew we were back in town, but he also knew we were staying with Billy. He actually, I think, preferred it that way. This had a lot to do with "that magic stuff", and besides, it disturbed him how much I'd grown in five years. Emotionally and physically, according to my parents, it was a few days before my sixteenth birthday. Charlie's last memory of me was the little girl, only one month old, but who could smile, wave, walk, talk and read. I couldn't wait until I was eighteen years old forever…or would that only be worse for Charlie?

Whatever. I wasn't in the mood to worry about stuff like this. I was engaged. Of course, Charlie didn't know about that either. It was just another thing that would freak him out. But I did. Bella, Edward and Billy did. The only thing that diminished my happiness was, of course, the prospect that Jake would die. But he _wouldn't_. I had to stop thinking like this and hope for the best.

But that was hard to do, on the fourth day. We were practicing in the meadow when suddenly Edward froze into that eerie, completely unmoving position. "They're here," he choked out. All the movement stopped, as though it was some sort of choreographed dance. "Not nearly as many as last time. Aro, Marcus, Renata. Some new ones…they're powerful. Elena. Gianna. Pietro. But there's only about seven, not counting the witnesses." For the first time, Edward smiled. "This should be easy.

In an instant, they were gone, running with superhuman speed as I struggled to keep up. I wasn't supposed to endanger myself. But I couldn't let Jake go alone. I caught up with them just as the werewolves all phased. Edward was right; there _were _a lot less than last time. I touched Edward's face, asking what the new ones' powers were.

"Elena is telekinetic, I think, or something similar. Gianna can make people think the same things she's thinking, persuade them to her point of view. Lester's another new one…he seems to be similar to Eleazar. He can tell people's powers. Pietro seems to be able to make people forget things…Well. It's a good thing Bella's shielding."

I had always liked the way my father said my mother's name, even when I was a baby. It reminded me a little of how Jake said _Nessie. _I wasn't named after the Loch Ness Monster, as Bella had originally thought. It was a private nickname, meant just for Jacob to use for me. Other people called me the same thing, but it was different somehow.

Aro stopped. He grimaced a little. I smirked. He hadn't expected to be outnumbered again, had he? He still began a speech. "Edward. Bella. So nice to see you survived."

The werewolves growled, but Aro ignored them. "But no one stands by your side? Tell me, dear Bella, what has happened between my old friends, the Cullens?"

Bella's inexorable hatred toward Aro was more than obvious. "You destroyed them," she said, her voice trembling. "You killed Alice. You killed Esme. You killed Carlisle."

"But Jasper doesn't wish to avenge his mate's killers?" Aro questioned with a wry half-smile.

"Not alongside shapeshifters."

Edward stood protectively in front of Bella. "Aro. You needn't stay here. You needn't endanger your guard. The vampires and the shapeshifters have a rift between them now. It will never heal."

Aro arched one fair eyebrow. "Yet they stand beside you? Yet the half-breed still lives?"

"The Cullens are half of what they were," Edward confessed. "Only Bella and I remain friends with the shapeshifters."

"Because of Renesmee," Aro stated. He wasn't wrong. In fact, he was exactly right. "No, Edward. You make a wonderful plea, but we simply can't afford to have the most powerful Cullens allied with these mutant wolves."

Edward looked like he would cry if it was possible. "Please, Aro," he begged. "Don't do this."

Aro answered by lunging at Jacob.

I saw it all happen too fast for my eyes. One minute Aro was speaking to Edward, and the next he was jumping. He tore a chunk off of Jake's leg before I could even register what was happening. I tried to protect him, but I couldn't. I took in the fight. Bella was fight with the small, thin little blonde who Edward called Elena. Trees were uprooting themselves and flinging toward Bella's head. She deflected them easily. Elena seemed to me like a newborn. But like I said, I didn't know anything. Edward tore Lester to pieces in the blink of an eye, and then moved on to Pietro. The remnants of the pack were attacking Gianna and some of Aro's witnesses. No one was protecting Jake. I cried silently. I touched Bella's face quickly. _Please_, I thought_, protect him. _She looked at me helplessly. It was unnatural to see a vampire look that way. I had to protect Jake, but I couldn't.

Maybe, I thought, it was best if I was killed. Jacob was losing the fight between him and Aro. What if I intercepted it? Surely, I knew, I wouldn't survive. Did I want that? What if Jake lived? I looked back at the fight briefly. It was highly unlikely Jacob would survive. But what if he did? Would I put him through that? I wouldn't be able to bear it, if the positions were reversed. But he was dying. And I was still alive. Something was wrong here.

I flung myself in between him and Aro. I tried to push Aro away, but an awful pain in my fingers stopped me. Aro bared his teeth. He looked evil. What had I done? Suddenly, I wanted to take it back. I didn't want to die at Aro's hands. But it was too late. And I'd see Jacob.

I felt suddenly a bite on my shoulder – and then someone pushed Aro out of the way. I saw shreds of what looked like granite fly up from the fight. But my vision was failing me. My shoulder felt like it was on fire, and the fire was spreading. The fight flickered in and out like bad reception on a TV.

This was impossible! I was half-vampire; the venom couldn't harm me. I couldn't become a vampire. And yet with every second, I was proving the impossible possible. Soon, the burning encompassed my entire body. It felt like I was swimming in a pool of hydrochloric acid. I burned to ashes every second, and yet somehow stayed alive to relive the torture.

I had read about a type of medieval execution called being drawn and quartered. Each limb was tied to a horse, and the four horses all faced different directions. The executioner gave the signal, and the horses galloped off. The victim was literally torn apart. I would have traded places with them in a second. They were allowed to die. I wasn't.

Jacob. The thought was more painful then all the burning, and that was definitely saying something. Could a werewolf marry a vampire? Bella had stayed _friends _with Jacob, but that was different. That wasn't what I wanted. I needed to need Jacob. Would I? All my instincts said it was impossible. And yet…Sam had loved Leah, and imprinting made him completely forget her for Emily. Quil had imprinted on a two-year-old. Technically, Jacob had made out with a five-year-old. Imprinting was a powerful sort of magic; was it more powerful than vampire venom?

I managed to control my charred and burned hand and touch someone. I couldn't tell who it was. I couldn't tell what they said in reply. I didn't even know if I'd touched anyone's face, so I wasn't sure they'd heard my thoughts. I felt vaguely someone pick me up and run with me. But I didn't try to concentrate on that. I was burning.

I burned for a long time, and then suddenly, I could feel my heart racing. The fire seemed to recede slowly and painfully, but my heart was thundering like a hummingbird's. It felt like an airplane taking off inside my chest. And suddenly, it was flying away and I was free.

I blinked and my eyes opened into a new world. I was in Jacob's room in his house, I remembered from my fuzzy half-human memories. No, I hadn't been in Jacob's room like _that. _I just had been in Jacob's room before. I could see every speck of dirt on the walls, every molecule of dust that floated in the air. When I breathed in, I didn't feel the oxygen. I remembered in a nanosecond that vampires didn't need to breathe. Didn't _need _to breathe, but the potpourri smell of the air smelled nice. There was a hint of an awful smell. Jacob. Ew, he _did _smell bad. In my peripheral vision, I saw the motion of Edward's mouth as he half-smiled at my thoughts. I could see every movement they made.

"Renesmee," Edward said warmly. "We're so sorry. We tried to stop the venom, but it was too late. It spread too far."

I looked more closely at Jacob. There was a little depression on his shoulder, and on his leg, there was an oozing scab. I _felt _my eyes flash scarlet as I smelled the blood. But it smelled unappetizing, and I left it alone. Blood. That opened up a whole new realm of pain in my throat. It was faintly reminiscent of when I was burning, but it was only within my neck.

I turned to Jacob. My raging thirst could wait. I needed to see, to find out if I still loved Jake. So I kissed him.

Kissing Jacob as a vampire made my head pound with adrenaline. It gave me a rush nothing else could compare to. I felt like I could tear down an entire building with one fingernail. If I'd still had a heart, it would have been pounding like a jackhammer. I could hear Jacob's heart, picking up speed. Joyfully, I realized I was still imprinted. As long as I had Jacob, everything would be all right. I could live on forever with Jacob by my side. As I would.


End file.
